Bath forwards grind out victory in Watford
By Adrian Laws
February 28 2010
Watford has been home for something like 20 years. And this fixture, a 20 minute walk to an away game as opposed to the 240 mile round trip to a home game, has been part of our life since Sarries came to Vicarage Road.
Today is the last time. All being well, we will be in Bath as residents around Easter. So today, on the way in, I thought I would take a long, hard look at this town and note some of the charm of Watford, some of the little things it's easy to miss and record them here. So ... Anyway, the game. Two sides playing very different style of rugby: Bath gaining confidence with their fast moving high risk ball in hand game and Sarries with their tight, forward based approach. Whose game would we play?
Looking back on our afternoon, this was a game dominated by the packs. What may have looked from the sidelines as dour, attritional rugby, represented a massive effort by the forwards of both sides. Sadly, we were not to see the silky skills of Mr Maddock or the power of Mr Banahan as options to get the ball wide were limited by the war going on in the set piece.
The first Bath points on the board came on 5 minutes following Bath's first attacking scrum and the pinging of the Sarries pack.
Hougaard evened the scores after Bath infringed at the breakdown on 17 minutes, the first significant visit the men in black had made to their visitors 22.
25 minutes in and the relentless struggle in the forwards was lightened up with one of the comedy tries of the year. Van Heerden took the ball cleanly from the Sarries throw on 5 metres and stumbled backwards to find nothing between himself and the try line. The conversion went wide to give Sarries an 8-3 advantage midway through the first half.
And then the pinging of the Sarries pack began. By the half time whistle, Bath had closed the gap with two more successful kicks to one from Sarries. Mr Rose was obviously not happy about something ...
The second half did not begin well. An attacking Bath scrum in front of the posts resulted in another penalty which Ryan Davis sent wide. Finally, 6 minutes into the second half Joe Maddock made his first real break, but the ball went wide and eventually into touch. Ten minutes in and another kick from Ryan had gone astray. Bath were not capitalising on the opportunities being gifted to them by a Sarries side playing 8 man rugby with increasingly predictable poor kicking whenever they took the ball wide.
Bur Mr Rose was not happy and on 55 minutes his unhappiness resulted in Bath being given a penalty try which Ryan duly converted.
The scoring ended there, with Bath taking a two point lead to the final whistle, 14-16. Olly was unable to add to the score, his first place kick since his return going wide, and the game eventually being settled by the wayward kicking of Sarries 10 Hougaard who squandered the opportunity to give the men in the black the points with 2 late missed penalties.
Lessons from this afternoon:
Yes, we did miss Butch. Ryan just didn't have the time to set the backline in motion. Nick made every effort to move the ball up the centre of the pitch, but the ball would just not go wide.
We were well prepared to play the game in the forwards. We have a Plan B. The starting pack played the full 80 minutes and were immense throughout.
Sarries have a big problem with their back line which has already been well documented. Their kicking away of hard won ball was less than popular in the South Stand.
This was the kind of game we would probably have lost earlier in the season, and some wayward kicking almost gifted it to our hosts. But after a couple of weeks of celebrating our back play, today was an opportunity to applaud our forwards and their huge work rate.
And so, homeward, with a quick stop off at a very quiet Druids. Will I miss Watford? No, I can live without never being more than 50 yards from heavily discounted garden furniture or a kebab. But still, at least one recent high profile signing for the men in black sees "exciting things" happening at Vicarage Road. I'm curious to know what these "exciting things" could be. They weren't in evidence today.
Photos by Patrick Khachfe - www.patrickkhachfe.com
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With spring around the corner I could well be interested in some heavily discounted garden furniture though...
Some very brave leaps and catches by several Bath players as the primary Saracens weapon was the up and under followed by a cavalry charge.
The Saracens fans were whinging about the penalty try....do not know why...after a couple of infringments and a warning at a previous scrum....Bath yet again got a shove on and the Saracens front row were clearly pulling the scrum as it shot at a rate of knots for the corner flag. The Sarries all cheered but Mr Rose ! had his hand up and was heading for the posts immediately.
It was definitely heart in mouth time in the last 1min 30sec...not one but two penalties and a drop goal...we have been there before ...but this time! Yes !
The boys looked really pleased at the end, Beastie was still fist pumping as they wearily walked over to say cheers to the supporters. nuff said.
), OB1 had a good match and it was great to see him last the full 80mins and Bendy (MOTM IMO), Maddog, Banners, Beastie & Hape were solid. Was disappointed with Davis; I was hopping he'd turned a corner after the past couple of weeks but his kicking from hand was wayward and he missed some crucial penalties, one from right in front of the posts. Wasn't happy to see Maddog go off after taking a knock, really hope he's OK. Absolutely loved the way Watson celebrated after we were awarded the penalty try and how happy all the team looked as they their did their 'lap of honour'! Well played boys! 
The future's bright - the furture's BLUE, BLACK and WHITE!!!
Lee Mears, the only player I can (nearly) look eye to eye with!!!
Good to hear you and S are really on you way to enjoy the delights of Bath - the rugby is of course our first love, but there are lots of other things to interest as well!
................the road to Bath.
The more I think about it the more massively impressed I am with the pack's performance yesterday. For all of them to do a full 80 minutes on that pitch was pretty amazing (and Belly is not getting any younger!).
would expect a few changes this w-end just to freshen it up cos as you say 80 mins by the whole 8 is very impressive but expect they'll be feeling it.
Coming from someone who is St Albans born and bred and still lives here now, I always like to think we the bookend of Hertfordshire, propping it up against the likes of Watford.
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Glad to hear our pack dominated and am suprised no replacements were used, Sometimes, SM's penchant for bringing every single body off the replacements bench even when there is only 5 mins to go is rather pointless!
Someone above indicated my boy might have been injured during the game??
Now, Adrian, about that discounted garden furniture.....
Well I hope we win the Premiership with a play off at HQ against Wasps and we scrummage them into the ground and bury Payne forever in the Twickenham turf.